It’s an old saw, but a good one – Be Careful What You Wish For. It’s the staple theme of many a cautionary tale, which I suppose we could say this book is. It’s a warning I’ve always kept close to my heart, even though I know I have no rational reason to do so. For example, I might wake up one morning, tired from a poor night’s sleep, and a thought will emerge from my brain – “I wish I could just stay in bed all the time.” I have to squash that thought, because I know it’ll inevitably lead to some mystical creature appearing in a puff of smoke, saying “IT IS DONE!” at which point I get hit by a bus and become a quadriplegic.

No thank you, sir.

I’m lucky – I learned this lesson from reading the right stories and watching the right movies. Little Josh Barker of Pine Cove, California didn’t seem to have that advantage. To be fair, though, he was under a lot of stress. He had just seen Santa Claus get killed with a shovel to the throat, and that’ll mess up any seven-year-old’s day. So when an angel – an honest-to-God Angel shows up in town, looking for a child to grant a Christmas Wish to, what else is a boy to do but wish that Santa would come back?

If it had been any angel but Raziel, it might have worked. Another angel might have gotten more details from the child about where Dead Santa was, rather than just “Out behind the church.” Another angel might have been more diligent in making sure the child got what he wanted, rather than what he asked for. Another angel might not have carelessly caused a zombie invasion of the weird little town of Pine Cove.

But this is Raziel, who has that most unfortunate of personality combinations – stupidity and confidence. Mix in a little laziness, and you have a recipe for the most horrible Christmas celebration ever.

This book is nice, entertaining, and very silly. Intentionally silly, really – try as I might, I couldn’t find too many overarching themes or messages other than the one I’ve already mentioned – be careful what you wish for. Alongside the unmedicated movie queen, the Evil Developer, the doped-up constable, and the talking fruitbat (who chooses not to talk, of course) you’ll find a diverse cast of bizarre characters that you’re not sure you’d ever really want to hang out with. I mean, don’t get me wrong but Pine Cove seems like that weird little town where they’re just one bad day away from, well, a zombie apocalypse. And god help you if you are the one who decided to wear your red Star Trek shirt to the annual Christmas costume party.

So if you like zombies, dope paranoia, swords and some good laughs, check out this book. As Christmas stories go, I can guarantee you’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s funny, not entirely scary, and written in Moore’s very conversational style that makes you want to turn around to your friends and co-workers and read passages out loud, no matter that they’ve developed a Pavlovian twitch every time you open your mouth while staring at a page….

It’s also a kind of Christopher Moore All-Star story, so if you’re a fan of his other works, you may see some of your favorite characters show up in these pages. And that’s always fun, although if he had added Biff and Maggie, I would have been a thousand times happier with it….

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“It’s Christmas! Ah, Christmas, the time when all good people go about not decapitating each other.”
– Tucker Case, The Stupidest Angel
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